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Harry ran down the corridor. He had no idea where he was going. His only thought was to distance himself as far as possible from what he felt was his most embarrassing moment. The thought that he had revealed so much to Snape was beyond mortifying. Harry was so preoccupied with his flight he did not even pause as he bumped into a very apologetic looking Colin Creevy and irritated Oliver Wood, who yelled that he had been looking for Harry as he passed. Thankfully, the castle was mainly clear of students due to the Hogsmeade visit and Harry soon found himself at his original destination, the owlery. Dejectedly, he brought himself to one of the windows where Hedwig was perched. Taking deep breaths, his lungs aching from his flight, he stared out onto the castle grounds. He had never felt so humiliated. Harry kicked the wall in frustration as he realized that Snape would likely use his words against him in potions class. His cheeks reddened as he imagined Malfoy snickering and later taunting him about being an orphan. Closing his eyes, he could almost hear Malfoy's haughty tone, "Muggle relatives that didn't even teach you any manners? What, Potter, are you going to cry about your mummy?"

Suddenly, he heard a faint pop to his right. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin. He looked up and saw that Lady DuLac had appeared. He wondered briefly about her ability to appear out of nowhere like Dobby. At the moment, however, all he could remember was that both she and Lupin had witnessed the end of his tirade. He looked down at his shoes in shame.

She cleared her throat and appeared to hesitate for a moment. Presently she stated, "I seem to recall that you had a question about Hogsmeade and your permission form."

Harry found a new hole in his well-worn trainers. It was suddenly very fascinating. He shrugged in response.

The Lady didn't say anything for a few seconds. The silence was becoming almost unbearable for Harry. He glanced up at her and noticed that she was staring out of the window with a guarded expression on her face. She took a deep breath as if considering something and finally said, "Rocky Road."

Harry was taken aback and couldn't help but saying, "What?" in response.

The Lady smiled and glanced at him. "That was your mother's favorite ice cream flavor." She looked wistfully out of the window. "She didn't change her mind even after going to Fortescue's or even after the house elves bent over backwards trying to come up with different ice cream flavors after three very mischievous children told them to serve every single ice cream flavor in the world. I wouldn't say that was very kind of us. It made grandmere quite cross." She let out a soft chuckle.

Harry looked up at the Lady briefly and then shifted his gaze to the landscape. He didn't know what to say. He had no idea how he was supposed to respond to adults. Professor Dumbledore had always made it very obvious when he wanted you to laugh with him but he didn't think that what Lady DuLac told him was a joke so he didn't know if he should laugh with her. He tried to picture his mother as a little girl but for some reason, only Ginny Weasley came to mind. Harry shuddered. He didn't want to think of Ginny as his mother. Finally, he spoke softly, "I...I..." He swallowed thickly. "I've never tried it."

"You've never tried Rocky Road?" The Lady asked just as softly.

Harry shook his head in response. The Lady had a soft smile on her face. "Well," she said, "we'll have to rectify that as soon as possible."

Harry's eyes widened and he couldn't help grinning slightly. For some reason, the promise of sweets seemed to fill him with childish joy. He had never really been promised treats before and could only remember feeling disgusted as his aunt Petunia placated Dudley with the promise chocolates, ice cream, and cakes whenever he threw a tantrum. His grin was quickly replaced by a frown. However, Lady DuLac didn't seem to notice. She appeared contemplative as she continued to gaze at the expanse of the grounds.

"Tonight is All Hallow's eve," she stated all of a sudden as she scourgified the window ledge and rested her arms on it. In a soft voice, she continued, "I believe that this means it's the 12th anniversary of the night that your mo-, I mean your parents, died."

Harry had never thought of Halloween that way. The Dursleys certainly never mentioned his parents deaths other than to talk about how they were good for nothing drunks who had died in a car accident. No one at Hogwarts had ever told him about the date, not even Dumbledore. Suddenly, Harry felt ill thinking about how he had enjoyed the Halloween feasts or about all the other times that he had been jealous of Dudley being able to wear costumes. He never remembered his parents on this day and he felt wretched. He felt stupid for not reading about himself in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts. Hermione had mentioned that he and his parents were in it. "I didn't know," he mumbled miserably.

The Lady turned to Harry, her eyes softening. "Of course you wouldn't have," she responded. "It seems that you have been left in the dark about a lot of things, and, none of it," she looked meaningfully at Harry, "absolutely none of it, is your fault."

Harry shrugged.

She sighed. "Harry, at some point, I would like to discuss your relatives with you but I believe that the conversation would leave us both rather upset."

Again, Harry shrugged in response.

The Lady seemed to decide to change the subject in reaction to Harry's reticence. "Would you like to light a candle for your parents this year?" She asked kindly.

Harry looked up with her. He felt a mix of emotions. On the one hand, it would be nice to focus his thoughts on his parents and for once, he would feel like he did the right thing. On other hand, he had no idea how to process the myriad of emotions that plagued him whenever he thought too deeply about his parents: his anger, sadness, frustration, and feelings of loneliness were paralyzing. The Lady seemed to notice the range of emotions on his face. "You know," she began awkwardly. She seemed uncharacteristically nervous about what she was about to say. "When Lily, when your mother first passed," she said quickly, "We, that is, Professor Snape and I, we used to light a candle for her." She paused and seemed to gather her courage. "We used to get together up until the fifth anniversary, I think. One of us would bring a carton of rocky road and the other would bring a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. We would light a candle and play the guitar. Stairway to Heaven was the only thing that we could manage, I'm afraid. It's the only thing that we had learned with your mother and we stopped playing after 5th year when her father stopped giving us lessons."

Harry eyes were wide at his information. Snape playing the guitar? Eating crisps? The Lady had to be lying there was no way that Snape would ever be caught dead doing any of those things. Also, why would his mother's death matter to Snape? Were they friends? Harry was very confused.

Harry's confusion must have shown in his expression. The Lady, however, seemed to register it as a reaction to the food choices. She chuckled and explained, "I always thought that the combination of the two snacks was quite unpalatable but they were your mother's favorites. In fact, when she was pregnant with you, I believe that she added pickles to the combination." The Lady scrunched her nose in disgust.

Harry registered all of these details. He was still intrigued about Snape's involvement in all of this. "Why Snape?" He asked.

The Lady looked confused.

Harry took a deep breath, "I mean, I just don't understand why my mum would be friends with him. Everyone says that my mum was really nice, smart, and clever. And Snape, I mean, er, Professor Snape is not nice at all. He only likes Slytherins and everyone says that he's really into the dark arts. Ron reckons that he'll do anything to get the job of defense against the dark arts, and..." Harry felt himself rambling.

The Lady bit her lip with a guilty expression on her face. "Professor Snape is rather harsh at times, well, in general," she conceded. "However, I do think that your mother brought out the best in him. She had the ability to bring out the best people. Her friendship with Professor Snape was rather...complicated so I'm unsurprised that you did not know about it." She paused and looked Harry in the eye. "Harry, the past can be rather difficult for people at times so I think that Professor Snape would appreciate it, if you did not mention anything about what we talked about today."

Harry nodded. He had no idea how he would even begin to talk to Snape about this. He almost snorted as an image of him saying 'Hey Professor, I heard you can play the guitar and even though you're a right git to me most of the time, would you mind telling me about your deeply personal memories about my mum?'

The Lady smiled conspiratorially at Harry. "I trust your discretion, Harry."

Harry nodded.

The Lady straightened her back. "Well," she said briskly, "I believe that we talked about lighting a candle. I think that the view of these grounds seems quite appropriate, especially considering the sunset."

Harry had not noticed that it was getting late. He almost groaned at loud as he remembered that he would have to sit through the feast and talk with Ron and Hermione about their day at Hogsmeade. He wondered whether he could pretend to be sick just so he could contemplate the events of the day.

The Lady conjured a single white candle in the window sill. "I believe that it's a little easier to be present in the world that we live in when we find a way to honor the past." She looked at Harry and took out her wand, motioning for him to do the same.

Harry took out his wand but didn't know what to do. He looked at the Lady with a questioning look.

She explained, "I'm going to teach you a bit of wandless magic. I want you to focus on the memory of your parents and everything that comes with it. When you do that, I find that it's best to transfer all of that energy into an image. In this case, a flame. You'll want to focus all of that emotion into the image of flame and then imagine that flame, lighting the wick of the candle. Does that make sense?"

Harry was nervous but he nodded in response.

"Alright," said the Lady. "We'll do it together, except, I won't light the flame. I'll do something else."

"Um...ok," Harry said, his voice shaking slightly.

"It's alright if you don't light the flame, Harry." Said the Lady. "I have matches, in case. She took some a box of matches from her pockets.

Harry grinned. He turned to the candle and held out his wand. "Like this?" He asked.

"Precisely," responded Lady DuLac. "Just take a few moments to collect your thoughts. When you're ready, just wave your wand and imagine that flame."

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He focused on the moving photograph of his parents dancing in front of a fountain. He let his sadness fill him and wished that he had a chance to know them. He waved his wand and focused on the candle. Tentatively, he opened his eyes. The candle was lit. The Lady had conjured some vines that framed. White lilies sprung from the vines. Harry snuck a peek at the Lady. She looked sad for a moment before she regained a neutral expression on her face. They both stared at the candle for a few minutes before the Lady waved it away. "Well then," she looked at Harry and offered a brief smile. "Shall we go tolerate the rest of the world and their festivities?"

Harry nodded and grinned slightly in response. "Yeah, I guess."

Neither noticed the brief flash of black robes in the doorway.